PAME’s Demonstrations: Optimism for the people can only be found in the development of class struggle

The demonstrations organized by the All-workers Militant Front (PAME) on November 9th in Athens, Thessaloniki and many other cities of the country sent a message of resistance and counter-attack to the government and the bosses.

Trade-unions, trade federations and Labor Centers, stepping up to the call to organize demonstrations, reaffirmed that they are prepared to take up action against the new wave of anti-people offensive that the government is launching in a number of fronts catering to the interests of the capital.

It is a struggle developed daily in the workplaces where the working class fights for signing Collective Contracts, against the loss of job posts and working rights, against state and boss terrorism; in the mobilizations against the banks and the state that are foreclosing, evicting and putting the people’s belongings in auction.

These demonstrations where a milestone in this activity, pushing forward to continue and intensify this effort, in preparation of a strike that will respond to the new attack the government is ready to unleash against the collective action and organization of the workers, particularly aiming against the right to organize strikes.

Nikos Mavrokefalos, member of the Executive Secretariat of PAME, taking the podium of the demonstration in Syntagma Square, condemned the anti-people politics of the SYRIZA-ANEL government and made reference to important spots of struggle and resistance that are developing in sectors and workplaces, such as: The mobilizations of the hospitals’ medical doctors against the dismantling of the public health-care system and against the intensification of the working conditions that lead the staff to exhaustion. The struggles of the steelworkers in the Shipping Repair Zone, that led to the signing of a local Collective Contract. The strikes of the National Telecommunication Organization (OTE), the mobilizations in the Constructions sector for the Collective Treaties. The mobilizations in the factories of “Elais” and “Lever”, in the Press sector for job posts and for working rights. The initiatives of trade-unions and People’s Committees against the foreclosures and evictions, against auctions of the people’s belongings. He added “We are obliged to strengthen every spot of resistance and unite these struggles towards a general confrontation with the bosses as a class. Against their people in the trade-union movement, against their political parties”.

Mavrokefalos emphasized that PAME fights for the signing of Collective Contracts. “We organize the struggle for the Collective Contracts in all sectors, in every business. We build upon the initiative of 530 trade-unions that a year ago presented an elaborate proposal of demands and struggles” he noted.

Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of KKE, from PAME’s demonstration in Syntagma Square, highlighted the following:

“Economic crisis and capitalist development have a common denominator: the crushing of people’s and workers’ rights. We find no optimism in the speeches of Mr. Tsipras or Mr. Mitsotakis regarding the fair development. Optimism for our people can only be found in the development of the class struggle, in the quick regrouping of the working class movement, in the Social Alliance, in the struggle in all fronts and in the all-around strengthening of the KKE”._